IS NEWSPAPER DECLINE DUE TO GREEDY OWNERS AND CRAP EDITORIAL?
May 10th 2009 09:35
It's not diminishing ad revenue that has put hundreds of journalists out of work — it's greedy media proprietors and cheap crap editorial, according to the president of the National Union of Journalists in the UK, James Doherty.
Doherty made further contentious and most probably correct claims.
For example, he was in northern Iraq last month to lecture local journalists on press freedom. He found it a humbling experience. "I told them that they will soon have overtaken us in terms of having liberty of press. Such are the freedoms they've gained; and that we will have lost due to big business."
"The greatest threat to press freedom is no longer government or public relations offices pushing angles. It's that there are no longer any journalists to get stories.”
Doherty predicts the industry will undergo massive structural change. One of his proposals is for journalists to establish local news consortiums run as not-for-profits. "Since we basically own the banks now, they should be putting money into such start-ups," he suggested.
"I think there's a real chance to create a new media environment with new regulations and with the public appreciating quality editorial. There is still an appetite for news, and money to be made from news."
| 25 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
